Readers sound off on the price of food, same-sex marriage, prison culture and more
Manhattan: Thanks for the enlightening Whole Foods story (“Stole Foods Inc,” June 24). Even with my suspicious tendencies, I don’t think Whole Foods committed outand-out fraud. They are just lazy and complacent. I think a better story would be the usurious prices charged everywhere by every chain and the way they go up out of the blue. It may be an old theme but it is gaining momentum in my opinion.
Large grocery store chains (minus Trader Joe’s, I think) believe they have the public by the short hairs. To survive, we will pay anything. I’m vegetarian, so Cartier-priced meats are a non-issue, but $2.99 per lb. apples are. In fact, there seem to be no seasonal fluctuations, either.
I am fighting back by using street vendors as much as possible. They may not sell paper towels or tabbouleh or cheese, but they can’t fool us on the rest. You put your yucca on the scale, end of story. Robin Peress
Common sense
Brooklyn: With its decision to support the legality of marriage equality, the Supreme Court deserves our gratitude for stating the obvious.
David Terhune
Sore losers
Laguna Beach, Calif.: Pity those who blame someone else for their lots in life. In bygone days, Republicans loved the Supreme Court. Now, after two incredibly important rulings (Obamacare on Thursday and gay marriage on Friday), they want to shred the institution. You can’t be an American only when it suits you.
Denny Freidenrich
Trapped in time
Bronx: Voicer Rachel Eriksen was right about Clinton Correctional Facility. I was there for a couple of weeks in transit. Being a black man in Clinton is like being a black man in Selma in the 1940s. Those are two bad dudes who got out of that hellhole — but I hope they never get caught.
A. Davis
School of hard knocks
Manahawkin, N.J.: Why is a two-year college degree required to become a police officer? Does a degree make you a better police officer? There may be plenty of good black candidates out there who lack a degree, but are otherwise qualified. Years ago you did not need a degree. Why now? Carmine J. LaCava
NYPD, ret.
We’re the problem
Kew Gardens: The forceful statement by Pope Francis on climate change and the environment is welcomed by all people concerned about the Earth. However, in his Op-Ed, “How Francis seeks to heal the planet” (June 19), Christopher White says the Pope does not “align himself with those who think that people are a drain on the natural world.” The reason for this is the church’s dogmatic stand against birth control. As Earth reaches 8, 9 and then 10 billion people, any gains made by personal or political change will be offset by population growth, and sadly there will be calls for forced sterilizations, mandatory limits on family size and even state-mandated abortion. The theology of the sanctity of life being used by the writer to justify this stand will give birth to a greater tragedy.
Jon Landsbergis
Bite your tongue
Morganville, N.J.: Our President has been dividing us on race since the day he took office. If a white Republican President ever said the N-word, from here to the moon people would not stop talking.
Fran Carbone
Yellow means caution
Brooklyn: It is a wonder that riders of New York City taxi cabs are ever reunited with their lost belongings. On June 18, at 11:05 a.m., I got in a yellow cab at Lexington and 68th St. to go to York and 72nd St. — which should not have taken more than a few minutes. After 20 minutes I asked the cab driver to pull over because I needed a bathroom and could not wait. I told the driver I would be right out and was leaving my bag to prove I intended to return and I was not trying to beat the $5 fare. When I returned no more than five minutes later, the driver had left with my bag. I never did get the medallion number or the driver’s name. I have now spent five days trying to find my bag. I have contacted the TLC twice, waiting on the line for over an hour and a half. I have contacted both police stations where drivers are instructed to bring lost property. The kicker is that at the taxi lost-and-found number I was given to call, nobody is answering calls. Clare Butts
Gun delusions
Trenton, N.J.: To Voicer Lisa Favara: President Obama did not say that mass gun violence doesn’t happen anywhere but here. He said mass gun violence doesn’t happen as often in any other advanced countries as it does here. And to all of you who keep saying that if one of the church members had been armed, then this could have been prevented, stop it. That’s simply not true. Roof would have still killed nine people. An armed parishioner would only have shot Roof after he already killed those poor innocent people.
Ade McCullum
Shooting blanks
Fairfield, Conn.: Apparently many Voicers don’t bother to read the very paper they spout off in. If they had, Voicers Carol Robinson and Cy Adler would have learned that Brazil and Russia have some of the strictest gun laws in the world but have among the highest murder rates, whereas Switzerland with very liberal gun laws has the lowest murder rate in Europe (“Myths of American gun violence,” Op-Ed, June 24). Stop believing everything Mike Lupica says and check out some facts.
Michael Caserta
Hard to swallow
Fresh Meadows: The Department of Education seems to be falling victim to the absurd. Eating breakfast in the classroom is a prime example. We’ll have spilled juice, pats of butter smeared on the desk, orange pits on the floor and instruction time delayed. As a retired teacher who spent 30 years in the classroom, I find this new concept another plan conceived by the never-in-the-classroom advisors to the mayor and the City Council. Try teaching sometime. It can be rewarding if none of this extra nonsense is added to the school day.
Edna Harris
Lifeline needed
Belle Mead, N.J.: I am an 80-yearold woman. I recently inquired of my lawyer, who is also executor of my estate, about my life insurance policy. (One was issued for my husband back in 1993.) He said there was no policy. I have been through various channels of trying to find that policy and who holds it, to no avail. I have gone through Brooklyn court and checked banks that made my husband’s deposits and insurance companies. There is not much of a trail. My lawyer says he lost paperwork in the Sandy flood. I am looking for suggestions from anyone out there that can lead me to my old policy because someone has it and/or a new policy.
Louise Carree
War is hell
Apopka, Fla.: During my 75 years on this planet, I’ve yet to encounter anyone who, having had to shoot at or been shot at by another human being, or having held a dying comrade in his arms, or having heard the screams of a foe dying at his hand, thinks participating in a reenactment of the unspeakable horrors of battle is a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. It’s fine to decry the symbols of war, and it is fit and proper to commemorate the deaths of those fallen, but it is far more important to recognize war for what it really is, occasionally inevitable and even necessary but never, ever glorious.
Frank H. Jett
Free the states
Heber City, Utah: The Confederate flag does not represent hatred or racism. It reflects the right of the states to remain sovereign, as was intended at the creation of the United States of America. That is not a bad thing! In fact, we need to acknowledge it more than ever right now, as the federal government has usurped many powers which are reserved purely to the states and the people.
James Green
False flag operation
Staten Island: Great, I am so proud that the people of Charleston, S.C., demanded that the Southern Cross, aka the Confederate flag, be taken down. Once it happens, I guess that will mean racism has ended. What are the newspapers going to write about if they cannot hype racism? One day, when we are all dust in the wind and someone finds the remnants of that flag, I hope they will endeavor to seek out its true meaning. The idiots of today certainly don’t want to know it. Mark this day in history — the day racism ended. So sad, you sorry people.
Robert McKenna
Rising again
Arverne: Southern pride? I’ll bet anyone that all the Confederate paraphernalia is made in the South of China.
James Smith